Chandigarh, July 26
The Congress high command has found an amicable way to thwart an impending ugly situation that could have embarrassed Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior leadership of the party. Former Haryana Finance Minister and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Birender Singh had announced that he would hold a rally in Jind on August 20, but would not invite the CM.

To placate Birender Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has reportedly accepted his invitation to attend the rally being organised by him on the occasion of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary. With this, the CM and other Congress leaders automatically get invited to functions that are being attended by the party president. The Haryana Congress has seen a lot of dissidence within its ranks in the recent past and the party high command is very concerned about it.

In the absence of any formidable Opposition, after the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leaders were jailed in the teacher recruitment scam, the central leadership sees the possibility of Congress retaining power for the third consecutive terms, if the dissensions within the party are curtailed.

Confirming the development, Chaudhary Birender Singh told The Tribune that he personally met Sonia Gandhi and invited her to the rally (which was earlier being touted as a show of strength). He said she had assured him that she would like to come for the rally.

The Haryana Government had earlier proposed another rally the same day to launch a food security scheme under the National Food Security ordinance, but it has now cancelled the same.

Asked if the Chief Minister was invited for the rally, Birender said, “there is no need for anyone to be invited where the party president is going, all Congress leaders and workers automatically get invited.”

The state government’s rally was aimed at taking sheen off Birender Singh’s rally. But with the Congress high command taking a decision to hold a single function in Delhi on August 20 with chief ministers of all Congress-ruled states’ in attendance, the state government’s rally has been shelved. Hooda would now attend the national function in Delhi and later is likely to accompany Sonia Gandhi and Birender Singh to Jind, presenting a united face of the party.

Birender Singh, a cousin of the Haryana CM, has been at loggerheads with the former since he lost the last Assembly election to Om Prakash Chautala from the Ucchana Kalan segment. Soon after his defeat, he had accused Hooda of engineering his defeat so that he would cease to be a rival for chief minister’s post. Birender has ever since been very critical of Hooda and even criticised the CM and his functioning at public rallies.

As a general secretary of the party and in charge of Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, Birender saw the Congress come to power in Uttarakhand and Himachal. As a reward, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited him to join the Union Cabinet. But Hooda reportedly “engineered’ the stalling of Birender induction into the Union Cabinet at the last moment.

Birender then announced that he would hold a rally at Jind to show who commanded real influence as a leader in Haryana. He declared that Hooda would not be invited to the rally.

Haryana goes to the polls next year and the party high command is keen to iron out differences between state leaders. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi held a review meeting with senior Haryana leaders, including the CM and state party president, earlier this month. He reportedly pulled up those present in the meeting for making scathing statements damaging the party image.